Baseball 3/20/2013 12:41:00 AM

No.10 Texas A&M Kingsville Hands TAMIU Fifth Straight Loss

Box Score

KINGSVILLE (March 19, 2013) – Javelina pitchers Taylor Taska, Weston Silverburg, and Tres Tyler dealt TAMIU their second shutout loss of the season , holding the Dustdevils to just four hits in a 5-0 decision Tuesday night at Nolan Ryan Field.

Taska went six innings scattering two hits with a strikeout to move to 3-0 on the season. Silverburg tossed a scoreless seventh in relief and Tres Tyler closed out the game holding TAMIU to just one hit over the final two innings.

Five TAMIU pitchers combined to allow 10 hits with the loss going to Dino Cristiani. Cristiani, who fell to 1-4 on the season, allowed three runs on five hits with a walk in four innings. Donald Fennell threw a scoreless fifth allowing only one hit, before Ryan Williams came on in the sixth and gave up two runs on four hits. Baylr Bickerton and Fernando Garza kept the Javelinas hitless over the final 2.1 innings.

In their first 22 games TAMIU pitchers had a combined ERA of 3.43. Over their last five matchups that number has jumped up to 7.88. Conversely, their opponents’ ERA has dropped from 5.09 over the first 22 games to 2.57 over their last five.

TAMIU’s fifth consecutive loss drops the Dustdevils overall record to 16-11 on the season, while Kingsville improved to 19-5. TAMIU will look to break out of their skid this weekend as the team heads to Odessa for a three-game conference series versus UT-Permian Basin. The Dustdevils swept the Falcons in the opening series of the year as part of their historic start.

Kingsville got the early jump on TAMIU, plating a run in the bottom of the first. Dustin Aguilar led off the inning with a double down the right field line before advancing to third on a ground out. Taska, in support of his own cause, scored Aguilar in a ground out to second base.

The Javelinas added two more in the fourth off a sac fly by James Black and a RBI single by James Wallace. Kingsville then strung together a two out rally in the fifth to tack on two more. A well-timed double play by the Dustdevils was followed by three straight hits and a walk to make it a 5-0 game.

TAMIU had only one batter reach second base in the first eight innings before finally getting something going in the ninth. Alex Salas reached on a leadoff walk, but was thrown out at second on a fielder’s choice. Following a strikeout by Grant Garrett, Fernie Garza singled into left field and advanced to second on an error sending Alex McKeon to third. Rick Alanis was struck out looking to end the game.

The doubleheader between TAMIU and UT-Permian Basin will get underway Friday at 1 p.m. with game two scheduled for 3:30. Game three is slated for a 1 p.m. start on Saturday.

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